Billy Bob Thornton does not want to talk politics and is unsure why other celebrities would impose their political beliefs on others. The veteran 70-year-old actor, who recently discussed his rare health condition, explained why he refrains from using his Hollywood platform to advocate for political or personal causes.
During an appearance on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast, Thornton stated: 'I don't know anything about politics. I have no idea. And the stuff that I do believe, I don't want to force it down somebody else's throat because I'm not an expert on that.'
Thornton also criticized celebrities who accept awards and then use the moment for activism. He said: 'I'm not really big on at awards shows all of a sudden you start talking about saving the badgers and stuff. Like Ricky Gervais said, you know, it's like get your little award and f*** off, you know?'
Podcast host Howie Mandel emphasized the importance of sharing personal feelings and experiences over pushing an agenda. He remarked: 'What we are experts in, just like the person that's listening, is being human. So if you could be open and share who you are, how you feel, how you cope, that's definitely going to do something.'
Thornton responded: 'That, I think, to me, is way more important than an actor or actress or musician telling people, like you said, who to vote for. Because, it's like, I mean, some guy's on the fence, and it's like, well, "Dash Rip Rock said it on the Golden Globes, so I'm voting for..."'
This is not the first time the actor has expressed disdain for celebrity activism at award shows. During a November appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, he said he does not really 'care about awards anymore' as he has 'plenty of them' and earned most 'under the wire, when awards were kind of real still.'
Thornton explained: 'I've won a couple recently. But these days I just look at it as like, "Oh, OK, we're gonna go over here and, you know, have some dry chicken breast and green beans, you know, and we'll listen to people get up there and pontificate about how awesome they are."'
Thornton won the 1997 Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published for Sling Blade. The Landman actor added that there is 'a time and place' for activism, but celebrities should avoid it at award shows.
He said: 'Don't go up there and talk about saving the badgers in Wisconsin or something, you know what I'm saying? And people would argue and say, "Well, no, because I have a voice and because everybody knows me. This is a great platform for me to put this out there." Well, how about this? If you have a billion dollars, and you want to save the badgers, f***ing save them. I mean, you got plenty of money to save the badgers, trust me. That is not, that's barely gonna cut into your budget.'
Landman season three is set to begin filming in August with a release expected later this year.
